In the Fall of 2018 Airdrie released its Economic Strategy and with that strategy came engagement, marketing and support. What used to be a solo man team of Kent Rupert, has grown into a team of 6 dedicated men and women working towards the same goal. Making Airdrie a place to live, work and play. The team of Economic Development Officers consists of Kent Rupert, Sara Chamberlain, Tara Levick, Adena Malyk, Shauna Quinn and Stephanie Rabel. I interviewed Sara, Tara and Adena who are the team’s Economic Development Officers.

The actual department within the City of Airdrie has been around for 20 years but over the last number of years they have made improvements and commitments to be more engaged with our business community. Over the years they have seen humongous growth in population and business opportunities. As with any growth, it needs a focal point, a point to keep intentionally moving towards.And that is making Airdrie the place to be, a community that attracts entrepreneurs and talent to live, work and play. With that intention, their team is centered around their 6 core values.

Business Development Business Retention Marketing Research Investment attraction Tourism (new initiative in 2018!)

The last initiative is a new one. Airdrie has never looked at our city as a place to visit or from a tourists perspective. Yet every year we have a multitude of events that attract hundreds and thousands of people here. In the past it would be up to the organizer to reach out to hotels and establishments for their visitors. Now with Airdrie having their own Tourism Development Officer, Shauna Quinn, we are able to connect with her. This will help support our events and attract even more visitors. Bringing in more money to our local Airdrie businesses pockets and more opportunities for our city! Shauna is kick starting a new promotion #airdriebound and encourages everyone to use that hashtag to grow our tourism economy.

The Airdrie Economic Development team helped create the SMARTstart program in 2014 and has been building relationships with businesses and potential entrepreneurs ever since. The SMARTstart program is the team’s pride and joy. Over the years they have had over 89 successful participants. “The best part about it is, when we walk into a business and know we had a part in their success” states Sara. The program consists of business planning, business education and more. It’s key feature is having local entrepreneurs partnered up as mentors to the aspiring ones. This creates a strong support system for both of them to develop and elevate themselves personally and professionally. The SMARTstart program has been acknowledged and won provincial and national awards. They just kick started a new year and can’t wait for these new businesses to blossom in Airdrie.

The team agrees that having a strong business sector in our city is important to our economy. Having businesses do business here creates the heart and soul of our city. These businesses are the ones to support the local hockey team or sporting events or arts programs. It takes these brave men and women to start up a business here and with the guidance from the Economic Development team they are led to success.

You may have heard of the exciting news that TELUS plans to invest over 60 million dollars into our community by providing their PureFiber network to all homes and businesses. How did this come about? It came about with the Economic Development team listening to us, the local citizens and also listening to business owners. There was this underlying stress regarding the internet in our city. Our internet wasn’t consistent and business owners were complaining about the restraints it was creating on their business. The Economic Development team stepped forward and acted on those conversations they had with the public. This is a really exciting time to be in Airdrie as a business owner and as a citizen. Imagine the possibilities with stronger and more reliable internet service for your children’s education or for your own personal growth.

Airdrie already has a great reputation to live and play here. Now, we want to create more opportunities for employment and business here. This will build a bridge to create the circle of live, work, play all right here in Airdrie. But this takes action from you and me for it to come true. It’s about putting our dollar back into our city when/where we can, either it’s registering our children in local sports teams, supporting local events or going for a coffee/beer in Airdrie. Every dollar back into our city helps grow opportunities for the whole city.

And to finish off the interview I asked the officers, what do you love about Airdrie?

Adena shared how she loves the small town feel. She appreciates that with our growth we keep honouring our roots of being an agricultural based city and how it all ties in. Tara expressed her love for the water tower and how being born and raised here, she loves knowing someone everywhere she goes. She also appreciates the small town feel and how we still care for our neighbours. And Sara expressed her love for the SMARTstart program and the business development they have been apart of with that.

The Airdrie Economic Development team has a big week coming up. They are requesting that May 6-11th be proclaimed as Economic Development Week, bringing awareness to the community on how their team can support and promote a live, work, play environment for us all to enjoy.

Please feel free to connect with them on Facebook @AirdrieEcDev or Instagram @airdrenow.